Hey, there! Log in / Register

Citizen complaint of the day: Don't chain your bike to a tree

Chopped down tree

A disgusted citizen filed a 311 complaint about a newly killed tree in an alley off Clarendon Street in the South End:

There was a bicycle chained to this tree this morning and it looks like someone chopped the tree down to steal the bike. Devastating to lose a beautiful living tree on our street this way.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

No one saw someone cutting a tree on Clarendon? No camera caught this?

up
Voting closed 0

On an alley off of Clarendon.

up
Voting closed 0

It’s likely the tree had greater value than the bike which never should have been attached to a tree.

up
Voting closed 0

not in today's market

up
Voting closed 0

A person is the victim of theft, and we're blaming her rather than the thief?

up
Voting closed 0

The tree is the victim. This person can possibly buy another bike, even if it takes longer due to hardship. Harder to grow another tree.

But somehow, I think a person with limited means would not have chained bike to a tree in the first place. They would know better what people are capable of and lengths they could go to.

up
Voting closed 0

Agree the tree is the victim, but replacing a tree that size isn't super-expensive.

up
Voting closed 0

The real victim is the tree.

up
Voting closed 0

This could be along the lines of "don't leave your car running with the doors unlocked while you pop into a store for a minute."

Heck, a neighbor had a moped stolen from him while it was chained to a stop sign. I hate to say it, but I noticed the missing sign before I realized what was chained to it. The thief (or thieves) cut the sign down, which is harder than sawing the tree in this story.

up
Voting closed 0

It was a simple observation that the tree was chopped down to steal the bike.

up
Voting closed 0

The city does say not to lock your bike to a tree.
https://www.boston.gov/departments/boston-bikes/park-your-bike#:~:text=T....

up
Voting closed 0

Cambridge asks people not to lock bikes to trees because the banging of the frame and lock against the trunk can damage the thin layer of living tissue just under the bark, effectively girdling the tree over time and killing it.

I've never heard of someone cutting down a tree to steal a bike before, but I guess you can add that as a new reason.

up
Voting closed 0

Where was the gender of the victim identified?

up
Voting closed 0

It wasn't. The commenter was obviously guessing, and traditionally he/him pronouns are used as singular gender unknown pronouns, but in modern writing, it has become more politically correct to use female singular pronouns in order to give female perspectives greater representation. There isn't really any graceful alternative in English since it lacks a gender neutral singular pronoun, and saying "his/her" is a pain and distracts from the point.

up
Voting closed 0

It would be one thing if someone accidentally backed into the tree, but to cut it down and kill it? I have no words.

up
Voting closed 0

If people can kill people and animals without remorse what makes you think they have remorse for killing a tree?

up
Voting closed 0

This checks out, I imagine someone stealing bikes (prices are sky high right now) probably are not environmentalists.

up
Voting closed 0

They just hate those problematic pear trees and used the bike as a get away device.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-02/bradford-pears-threat...
(joke)

up
Voting closed 0

That tree is a ginkgo.

up
Voting closed 0

Almost everyone knows enough to plant MALE ginkgos, which do not smell. Occasionally a smelly one gets planted by mistake, but it's rare.

up
Voting closed 0

A few 'male only' cultivars are in development, but this is not foolproof either, as it is proven that the ginkgo trees can change sexes. So even if there is a way of telling male and female ginkgoes apart, that doesn't mean the sex of the tree is permanent.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/ginkgo/ginkgo-male-vs-...

up
Voting closed 0

Locks and chains directly damage the trees. They rip up the bark and leave them open to infestation.

If you can bike, you can probably walk a little further and find a better place that will be less vulnerable to malicious opportunists.

up
Voting closed 0

Trees are a bad choice that is very true. But looking on Google maps, there aren't any places to lock a bike. The ally indicated on the map is gated, i think this is actually a picture of gray street. That pipe you see in the back round is the only alternative nearby. All of the local street signage is attached to thick poles. If they just had a ulock then it wouldn't work.

up
Voting closed 0

You wouldn't leave your baby or pet chained to a tree overnight would you?
I would rather have to edge around the bike in a crowded apartment or even share a bed with it before I left it outdoors overnight.

up
Voting closed 0

I volunteered at a place which was extremely bike unfriendly. They treated volunteers who biked as 2nd class citizens with a "stick it in the back attitude." They refused to acknowledge the preferential treatment provided for cars by paying for and maintaining a parking lot. A parking lot that would server far better as living ground; not dead asphalt.

This ironically in a non-profit overtly concerned about being politically correct. Classic middle class NIMBYs. Sadly they also considered themselves quite liberal. But liberalism in the "Do as I say, not as I do" variety. Better than the person advocating wives being servants to their husbands, but still too close to that dysfunctional craziness.

up
Voting closed 0

Probably best that you parted ways.

up
Voting closed 0

I'd like to treat bike thieves like we used to treat horse thieves.

up
Voting closed 0

How we treat car thieves.

up
Voting closed 0

car thieves?

up
Voting closed 0

not much happens to car thieves. But it is actually pretty hard to steal an actual car without mugging or robbing the owner for the keys. If there is an assault, especially if it is a carjacking, tends to be treated more seriously. They use the same charge for stealing scooters and those can still be started with a screw driver.

up
Voting closed 0

... anything to except unruly children.
JK.

But there is a huge problem with lack of designated safe bike parking and storage in Boston. And a lack of interest on the part of police for protecting the property of who they perceive as the poor.

up
Voting closed 0

Cops don't care about bicycle theft because bikes are not worth that much, it is not a violent crime, and well, there is a whole lot of other shit going on right now.

up
Voting closed 0

The bicyclist got exactly what they deserved

up
Voting closed 0

How so?

.

The bicyclist got exactly what they deserve

up
Voting closed 0

I have long tied up to sidewalk trees when there was nothing else available nearby. But it was always short period lockups - and I always worried about it a little, knowing that it would only take 8 or 10 saw strokes to grab the bike. But I've always figured - Nah! Who's going to go to the trouble of sawing down a tree to get to a bike would still have a lock attached to it? Plus, who carries around a crosscut saw with them?

No more!

(And I challenge anyone to cite a specific example of a tree with a 3"+ trunk that was mortally wounded by have a u-lock or loose cable draped around it for a few hours. Sheesh!)

up
Voting closed 0

Seems like such a clean cut - can a freshly cut tree trunk be "grafted" back together (and survive)?

Appears to be feasible with apple tree branches...

up
Voting closed 0

maybe, but those grafted fruit trees get alot of tender care. The tree will probably shoot out some branches if it gets enough water.

up
Voting closed 0

This has happened repeatedly in my neighborhood as well despite the frequent pleas to cyclists to not lock their bikes to trees! For what it's worth, it's not the city of Boston that pays for the trees where I live, it's we the neighbors so shut your trap about someone else will pay to replace it.

up
Voting closed 0

What's next - blowtorches?

up
Voting closed 0

'Twas sawn, not chopped.

up
Voting closed 0

The chain in that bike lock is hi-tensile steel. It'll take you ten minutes to cut through it. But if you're lucky, you can hack through this tree in five minutes.

up
Voting closed 0